


shifting gears

by championstunic



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Comedy, Driving, Gen, Hirugami Sachirou Can't Park, Hirugami Sachirou/Hoshiumi Kourai if you squint, Hirugami Siblings and other fun stuff, I hope?, Slice of Life, This was born out of a joke please don't take it seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25239763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/championstunic/pseuds/championstunic
Summary: “Okay, Sachirou,” he says to himself in the now-empty car. “You’ve got this. No one will die if you screw up. Just don't hit any cars. You can do this.”Or: Hirugami Sachirou is smart, capable, good at volleyball, and good at driving. He just can't park cars to save his life.
Relationships: Hirugami Sachirou & Hirugami Fukurou, Hirugami Sachirou & Hirugami Shouko, Hirugami Sachirou & Hoshiumi Kourai
Comments: 23
Kudos: 120





	shifting gears

**Author's Note:**

> twitter is wild because one second you make a joke tweet about how one of your favorite characters can drive, but he can't park, and the next second it becomes a meme. before you know it, you're writing 4k words about it.
> 
> full disclosure: i don't know the breeds of car, i'm not really sure what parking etiquette is like in japan, and i _also_ can't park.

Sachirou can hear Fukurou take a deep breath, and he looks over to see his brother gripping the roof handle of the car so tightly that his knuckles have turned white. Fukurou gives him a tentative thumbs up and smiles, but it looks more like a grimace.

“Ready when you are!” he says.

“ _Seriously?_ Do you really have such little faith in my driving ability? I’m an adult now and I’m much more capable than you think, you know,” Sachirou replies with a huff as he readjusts the distance between the seat and the pedals and checks the positions of the mirrors.

“It’s not that I don’t have faith in you,” Fukurou begins. “It’s that when I drove with Shouko for the first time, she pressed down on the gas so hard that she almost drove us straight through the neighbor’s wall. I’m sorry if I’m a little apprehensive.”

Sachirou shudders, thinking about when he was in middle school and his sister had just started driving. Luckily, late nights at volleyball practice saved him from having to be in the car with her most of the time but, when it didn’t, he often found himself strapped into the back seat silently praying to the gods that the roads would be empty that day.

“Well,” Sachirou says confidently, jerking the gear shift of his brother’s old Honda to put the car in drive and pressing down slowly on the gas pedal. “You don’t have to worry about me. This can’t be harder than anything I’ve done before, and you know how well I did on my university entrance exams.”

As he pulls out onto the main street, Sachirou hears Fukurou grunt in response, but he doesn’t say anything else, choosing to focus on the road ahead. This is the first time he’s driven on the street, since his brother usually only lets him drive around in circles at the parking lot of the local city gymnasium during times of the night when he knows it’ll be empty. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little bit nervous, but nerves never affected Sachirou all that much, and he steadily picks up speed as he winds through the various Nagano side streets, guided by Fukurou’s directions. The only noise aside from the car’s engine is Fukurou’s constant reminders to keep left, check his mirrors, make sure he isn’t too close to the car in front of them, try to be centered in his lane, don’t press down on the gas too hard. 

The drive also wouldn’t be complete without Fukurou’s indecipherable volleyball metaphors. Sachirou’s personal favorite is when his brother says, “You know, breaking at a stoplight is just like a good block. You have to use the right amount of force and think ahead, so that you don’t get tooled or, in this case, stop too suddenly and cause an accident. Then you can smoothly move into the next attack.” 

“That’s very profound, nii-chan,” Sachirou replies dryly. 

It’s his brother’s brand of backseat driving and Sachirou can only take so much before he wants to tear his hair out. But he can’t, because then his brother would lecture him for not keeping both his hands on the steering wheel.

“You’re doing really well, Sachirou!” Fukurou says after almost an hour. Out of the corner of his eye, Sachirou can see that he’s finally released the roof handle and he’s slouching down in his seat a little more than before. “I’d like to think it’s all thanks to my vigilant guidance.”

Sachirou rolls his eyes as much as he dares while keeping them on the road. “Yes, what would I have done without your endless supply of thoughtful advice,” he replies sarcastically. 

Fukurou doesn’t pick up on his tone, though, and he gives Sachirou a satisfied hum before directing them back to the car’s normal parking spot. It’s when they get there that the problems really arise.

Whenever Sachirou would go driving in the empty parking lot, all he’d have to do when they finished was put the car in park wherever they stopped and then swap places with Fukurou. It didn’t matter whether the car was double parked or standing it in the middle of the driveway, because it was only there for as long as it took him to move to the passenger seat and there was never anyone else around.

But now, the parking lot is full, and Sachirou has to try to squeeze his brother’s Honda into a parking space between a Nissan and a Toyota. As he inches closer and closer to the spot, he starts to feel like the gap between the other two cars is growing smaller and smaller. He hesitantly peeks out of his window at the space between him and the car on his right, and decides he’s turned too narrowly. He puts the car in reverse and turns his head over his shoulder to back up.

“Woah woah woah!” Fukurou exclaims, and Sachirou slams on the breaks. “Don’t back up too fast, you’ll hit the cars on the other side.”

Sachirou just nods and shifts the gears again, but this time his turn is too wide. He only manages to stop the car when the front bumper is mere centimetres away from the back bumper of the car to his left, pressing down on the breaks so quickly that he and Fukurou are jerked forward. Sachirou swears.

His brother sighs audibly. “Okay, third time’s the charm. Just back up slowly and try again.”

“I’m _trying_ , nii-chan!” Sachirou whines uncharacteristically, backing up anyway.

“Okay, back up straight now. Go a couple more meters before you go forward again,” Fukurou instructs. His hand is clutching the roof handle again, and Sachirou can tell that his grip is even tighter than it had been earlier.

“I could really do without the commentary, you know.”

“I’m just trying to—”

Fukurou cuts himself off with a high-pitched yelp when the car lurches forward after Sachirou puts it back into drive. He inches forward again, this time at a snail's pace, and groans out of frustration when he finds himself in such a wide turn that he’s practically still driving perpindicular to the parking space.

“Do you want me to get out and guide you into the spot? You can try backing in this time?” Fukurou offers tentatively. “It’s your first time parking like this, so it’s understandable that you’re having trouble.”

“I swear that Toyota is too close to the line. It's screwing me up,” Sachirou defends himself as he puts the car in park for Fukurou to get out. He releases the steering wheel and drags a sweaty hand down his face. “But yeah, sure, whatever.”

Fukurou opens the door wide, scrambling out of his seat and taking a deep breath of relief before slamming it behind him. He walks over to the parking space, situating himself so that Sachirou can see him in the rearview mirror.

“Okay, Sachirou,” he says to himself in the now-empty car. “You’ve got this. No one will die if you screw up. Just don't hit any cars. You can do this.”

Watching Fukurou’s signals in the mirror, Sachirou meanders straight forward. When he’s a few meters away from the parking spot, he swivels his head around to look over his shoulder and squints at the distance he has to work with, trying to regain his bearings and determine his next movements.

 _This is no different than volleyball_ , he thinks, to his horror using the same logic as his brother. _I just need to think ahead in order to get from one place to another. It’s not that hard, I don’t know why I’m fumbling._

Slowly, he jolts his way backwards, following his brother’s signals to turn the tires to the right, then the left, then to finally continue going straight. It’s not until his brother finally holds his palms out, telling him to stop, that Sachirou releases a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

After Sachirou puts the car back in park and pushes open the door, Fukurou walks over to him. It’s a little tight with the car to his right, but it’ll be enough space for Sachirou to squeeze out.

“So? Am I good?” Sachirou asks.

Fukurou looks at Sachirou’s parking job before answering uncertainly, “Uh… yeah, it’s fine. For now.”

At this point, Sachirou doesn’t want to spend another second in the car, so he doesn’t bother questioning Fukurou’s hesitation. He unbuckles his seatbelt without another word and practically leaps out of the seat, yanking the keys out of the ignition and slamming the door behind him. When he’s finally able to get a look at what he’s done, he understands why his brother was so uncertain. 

The car is terribly crooked, to the point where it’s almost at a complete diagonal with the border of the parking space. Sachirou’s door had barely opened to let him out, but he hadn’t realized that the driver’s side was _that_ close to the other car’s passenger side door until now. He shrugs, though, figuring that the other driver would manage, just like he had. So, he locks the car and twirls around to begin walking with his brother back to their house.

“You’ll need to practice your parking some more,” Fukurou tells him after unlocking the front door. His statement is practically drowned out by Sachirou’s dog barking in greeting.

“Eh, I’ll get better eventually and I don’t think it was bad for my first time. I’ll be parking like a pro before you know it,” Sachirou replies over his shoulder matter-of-factly, running over to the dog to scratch her behind the ears and leading her outside to play in the backyard.

The next day, Fukurou takes Sachirou for another drive. When they get to the car, they notice that the two other cars are gone and there’s a note tucked under the windshield wipers. Fukurou reads it first, sighs, then passes it over to Sachirou. 

In slanted handwriting, it says, _Park properly next time, moron._ Sachirou winces.

\---

“So why won’t nii-chan take you driving any more? He said you’ve been doing well, right?” Shouko asks, sitting in the passenger seat of the Honda. She’s visibly more relaxed than Fukurou always is on their drives, with her legs crossed and her elbow resting on the window sill. 

Sachirou takes a deep breath, driving the car forward out of the parking spot and making sure that they’re out of the lot without a hitch before he dares to answer. He knows that once he’s on the main road, everything always goes smoothly.

“He said that if he has to waste any more time watching me take twenty straight minutes to back into a parking spot, he’ll never get anything done,” he explains. In a mumble, he adds, “He’s always around to bother me, though, so it’s not like he has a shortage of time, anyway.”

“Ah, so that’s why I got saddled with this on my day off?” Shouko says dully. Sachirou can see that she’s resting her chin on her open palm and watching buildings pass through her window. 

They’ve been in the car for five minutes already, and if Fukurou were there he would’ve given Sachirou a million pointless reminders by now. Shouko hasn’t given him any and Sachirou is still driving just fine. That’s why Shouko’s always been his favorite.

“Well, you said you’d only do this if I took you to get errands done, so where are we going first?” He asks, flicking on his blinker so he can merge into the left lane.

Shouko shifts in her seat, pulling her phone out of her pocket to check something, and then says, “Let’s go by the municipal gym first. I have a clinic to give to some high schoolers at noon.”

Sachirou tightens his grip on the wheel to keep himself from jerking the car into the sidewalk. “That’s not an errand, that’s an entire commitment! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Shouko shrugs. “You didn’t ask.”

“You tricked me!”

“Hey, you told me you needed someone to go driving with you. I just so happened to need someone to drive me. This feels like win-win to me.”

“You can drive yourself, though!”

“Nii-chan doesn’t let me drive his car any more. I _told_ him that that one time wasn’t my fault and it was all because of a deer on the road but he doesn’t believe me.”

Sachirou sighs, turning onto the side street that he knows leads to the city gym. “Well, how long is it gonna take? Do you really expect me to sit in the car and wait for you the entire time?”

“You can come inside and help out,” she suggests smugly, and Sachirou can tell she’s wiggling her eyebrows in the way she always does when she’s teasing him. “I bet some of the girls would love that.”

Sachirou wrinkles his nose. “Not interested. Pass.”

“Whatever you say,” she sing-songs. “Have fun texting Kourai or playing mindless games on your phone or whatever it is you’ll do for two hours.”

" _Two hours?"_ Sachirou almost jerks the wheel again, and he can see the glint in his sister’s eyes without even taking his eyes off the road. 

“Maybe more, if they have a lot of questions.”

“You have to at least give me some money so I can walk to the store and buy a snack or something.”

“Hm, that wasn’t part of the deal.”

“Waiting in the car for two hours also wasn’t part of the deal. You told me _quick_ errands.”

“Fine, I’ll give you 100 yen.”

“That’s hardly even enough for a coffee.”

“200 yen.”

“My sweet, lovely nee-chan, please. I wasn’t born yesterday. _At least_ 500 yen.”

“500 yen _and_ you ball boy for me for an hour.”

Sachirou can see the gymnasium ahead. He blows a raspberry and concedes. “Fine, but if any girls try to talk to me afterwards, their hurt feelings are on your head.”

“When did you get so stuck-up and arrogant, Sachirou-kun? I didn’t raise you this way.”

“Nee-chan, you are the sole person to blame for the way I am today.”

Shouko laughs and ruffles Sachirou’s hair. “You’re not wrong.”

He elbows her arm away, only daring to take his hand off the wheel for a few short seconds. The car falls into silence when he enters the gym parking lot, his full concentration focused on finding a parking spot that will be easy for him to claim. After driving through the entire lot, though, it becomes obvious that all the spots are taken and Sachirou’s heart sinks.

“Oh!” Shouko exclaims, tapping him on the shoulder and pointing at something through the windshield. “They let you park on the street here. I see a spot over there.”

Sachirou follows her gaze to an empty parking spot right next to the sidewalk outside of the parking lot. The only problem is that the spot is sandwiched in between two other cars, one in front and one behind. Sachirou gulps.

“Maybe I can circle the lot one more time—” he begins suggesting.

Shouko groans. “Come _on_ , Sachirou. Nii-chan was probably exaggerating about your parking and I have to be inside soon, so just take the open spot.”

So, Sachirou makes his way back out of the parking lot to the space that his sister had pointed out. He’s never parked on the street before, and he can feel his heart rate increasing. Sachirou hasn’t felt this nervous about something in years, but he can’t let Shouko notice. 

In his head, he keeps repeating to himself, _what are you so worried about? There’s no one around and it’ll be fine. It’s not that hard, you’ve done harder things. It’ll be fine. Just like volleyball. It’ll be fine._

When he’s about to start pulling into the parking space, the front of the car first, his sister reaches out and grabs his shoulder. “Wait, stop, you know how to parallel park, right?”

Sachirou laughs nervously. “Of course I do, nee-chan, I know all the intricacies of driving and parking, as I should. Why would you think otherwise?”

Shouko raises an eyebrow. “Because when you parallel park, you’re supposed to back into the spot first. I had to take my driver’s exam three times before I passed and even I could tell you that.”

“Obviously, I knew that,” Sachirou tells her, tapping his temple with his index finger. “I was just making sure that _you_ did. And you passed my test, great job!”

“Cool, whatever. Hurry up and back it in so that I can be on time.”

Sachirou sighs and puts both his hands back on the wheel before turning the tires and continuing straight forward. Then, he puts the car in reverse and begins backing it in, glancing between the rear windshield and the rearview mirrors every few seconds.

After a short while, Shouko turns around to look behind them, too. “You do realize you haven't even backed it in, right?”

 _She's right_ , Sachirou thinks. _I’m still perfectly parallel to the spot._

“Oops.” Sachirou shifts the gear to drive and tries again.

Shouko’s long since uncrossed her legs, but now she's sitting straight up in her seat and craning her neck to look out the window. “Seriously, Sachirou, this time we're literally perpendicular to the spot. The front of the car is in the street!”

Sachirou mumbles a few swears to himself before pulling forward _again_ , this time trying to turn diagonally away from the lines marking out the space that he needs to fit into. At this point, he’s just glad no one else is driving by to serve as an audience for the spectacle he’s sure he’s making. Sachirou knows that if he wasn’t the one driving, he’d also want to laugh at the idiot who can’t even back into a parking space.

By his fifth try failing to back into the spot and subsequently having to pull forward again, Shouko pulls out her phone.

“Great, I’m almost late.”

“Well, nii-chan did warn you,” Sachirou offers with a weak smile.

Shouko responds with a glare. “Get out, let me try.”

Sachirou’s mouth falls open. “Hey, wait, didn't you say he doesn't let you drive his car?”

Shouko’s already unbuckled her seatbelt and is waiting for Sachirou to put the car in park. “What nii-chan doesn't know won't hurt him. It's not like I’m gonna damage the car, I told you that one time was a fluke. At this point, if I don't park this car, I’ll never make it to my clinic on time.”

Rolling his eyes, Sachirou complies anyway, putting the car in park and unbuckling his own seatbelt. He climbs out of the car, tosses the keys to Shouko, and walks over to the sidewalk to watch her slide into the driver’s seat he just vacated. Within minutes, she’s backed in perfectly up against the curb, leaving just the right distance between the car and the sidewalk, as well as the cars on either side. Sachirou gapes at her when she finally hops out of the car, gym bag slung over her shoulder.

“Told you I could do it. Now, you better be able to pull out of that spot later without bumping any other cars,” she says, throwing the keys back to Sachirou with a self-satisfied grin before shoving a few coins into the parking meter and continuing towards the gymnasium entrance. “Hold onto those, please. Now follow me, ball boy.”

Sachirou shoves the keys in his pocket and falls into step beside her. “Hold on, give me my 500 yen first.”

Shouko snorts, jogging ahead of Sachirou to the front doors. “Give me those twenty minutes of my life back, first, dummy.” Then, she disappears into the gym without another word.

“What the hell?” Sachirou calls after her. “That wasn’t the deal!”

\---

“Buckled up?” Sachirou asks casually, because he knows that Kourai likes to fidget while he’s driving.

“Duh!” Kourai replies. “Just don’t take as much time to leave as it took you to park. I guess you really _are_ immovable.”

Sachirou sticks his tongue out at him after buckling his own seatbelt. “I don’t think you should be complaining about my driving when you don’t even have your license yet, Kourai-kun.”

“Professional volleyball players don’t need driver’s licenses,” Kourai huffs, crossing his arms against his chest.

“Nii-chan has a driver’s license,” Sachirou adds.

“Fukurou nii-san doesn’t count. He’s _old_.”

“I’ll tell him you said that,” Sachirou says with a laugh, turning the key in the ignition.

Kourai’s eyes widen. “If you do that, I’m never speaking to you again.”

“You know, you’re really sweetening the deal.”

“I’m about to just walk home.”

“Oh, and miss out on my lovely company?”

“You’re lucky that I like you,” Kourai grumbles, sinking deeper into his seat.

“I’ll give you that,” Sachirou concedes, finally shifting the car into drive.

“Wait, aren’t you gonna back out? Why are you driving forward?”

“It’s fine,” Sachirou says, gesturing through the windshield towards the row of cars facing them. The space immediately in front of them is empty, another car is to the right of it, and a light pole is to the left. “It’s easier to drive straight forward. There’s enough space for me to squeeze between that car and the light.”

Kourai frowns. “I don’t know, Sachirou. It seems like you’ll end up bumping into something.”

“Kourai-kun, please. I know what I’m doing, I passed my test, remember? A little faith would be nice.”

Kourai holds his hands up in defeat. “Alright, alright, whatever you say. You’re the licensed driver, I guess.”

“Thank you,” Sachirou says with an exaggerated sigh, finally pressing down lightly on the gas with his foot.

The car inches forward slowly, and before Sachirou can move his foot to break, the passenger side grille hits the streetlight.

“I told you!” Kourai says immediately, pointing out his window. “Now you scratched the car.”

“It’s okay,” Sachirou assures him. “It’s probably just a tiny scratch. The rest of the car can get by, alright?”

Kourai pouts but doesn’t say anything else as Sachirou returns his foot to the break.

When the rest of the car doesn’t get by, Sachirou knows he messed up. First, he can feel the lamppost scratch against the front bumper, then it hits the passenger side mirror, and it continues scraping across the entire left side of the car as Sachirou wedges it through a space that is apparently much smaller than he originally thought. Finally, the ugly, grating sound of metal-on-metal comes to a stop and Sachirou stops when they are completely out of the parking spot his brother’s car had previously occupied.

Sachirou slowly puts the car in park and leans back in his seat with his hands on his knees. The two of them sit in silence for a few seconds. Kourai speaks first.

“So,” he starts, his voice calm and measured. “Why did you keep going forward?”

“I’m not sure,” Sachirou admits after a moment’s hesitation.

“I told you that there wasn’t enough space!” Kourai exclaims suddenly, turning to look at Sachirou. “Why didn’t you listen?”

“It looked like I could fit!” Sachirou yells back. “How was I supposed to know it wouldn’t?”

“Maybe when you hit the light for the first time, you should’ve realized that you couldn’t get through and just backed up the car!”

“Well, why didn’t you tell me that, then?”

“I tried to tell you that!”

“I guess you did! I’m sorry, Kourai-kun!” Sachirou shouts.

“Okay! Stop yelling!” Kourai yells. Then, lowering his voice, he asks, “What’re you gonna do?”

“I suppose I should check the damage,” Sachirou answers with a grimace. He opens his door and walks around to the other side of the car, where Kourai is also stepping out.

When he gets there, he sees an enormous black streak of paint scratched into Fukurou’s gray Honda. It stretches all the way from the front bumper to the middle of the backseat door, and Sachirou knows he won’t be able to simply wash it away. Definitely more than just a tiny scratch. Beside him, he can hear Kourai take in a sharp breath.

Sachirou runs a hand through his hair. “Nii-chan is never gonna let me drive his car again!”

“Sachirou?” Kourai says quietly. 

“Hm?”

“For a while before we became friends, I thought it was intimidating how perfect you seem to be sometimes.” 

Sachirou, trying to regain his composure, furrows his eyebrows in confusion and opens his mouth to reply.

Before he can say anything, though, Kourai looks over at him with a small smile and continues, “But now it's nice to see that even you have your flaws!”

**Author's Note:**

> this was my first time writing a fic like this. it was purely the result of a joke that went way further than i thought it would, but anyway hope you enjoyed it? thanks for reading? find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/vethirugami) for more dumb jokes like this?


End file.
